Bishops And German

Propaganda

A Slight Misunderstanding

THERE was a little stir in New Zea land recently, between bishops, con cerning German propaganda in New Guinea.

Bishop Baddeley (Melanesia), in Auck land, referred to the all-too-frequent re ports about the pro-Nazi propaganda of German missionaries working in New Guinea; and he quite rightly said that it was “a breach of hospitality on their part to introduce politics to their religi ous teaching.”

This stirred up Dr. O’Shea, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Wellington, who said that such an attack on “German Catholic missionaries,” made without evidence, was unfair, and that such mis sionaries could not wish to live under Nazi rule.

His Grace of Wellington, for once, barked up the wrong tree. There never has been complaint against the Catholic missionaries. The trouble —and it is not very serious has been caused by the injudicious enthusiasm of certain young Lutherans, who have arrived in New Guinea with their ideas about Nazi-ism all out of focus.

We learn that necessary disciplinary action has been taken by the heads of the Lutheran mission, and probably little more will be heard of the matter.